Screengrab from the Strathmore Foods advert was singled out in the report for stereotyping older people as grumpy and intolerant.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s recent report on ageism in advertising confirmed what many of us have known for a long time. Older adults are not just underrepresented — they’re misrepresented. Too often, they’re portrayed as frail, forgetful, technophobic, or shown only in moments of loss or dependence. And rarely with any joy, power, nuance, or agency.
For Debbie Marshall, CEO of the Silver Marketing Association, this is more than a professional concern. It’s a human one. “So many people still think of ageing as a visual thing — grey hair, a stick, a smile,” she says. “But ageing doesn’t cancel out other identities. It compounds them. Someone might be 70 and disabled. Or 68 and trans. Or 75 and South Asian, living in a multigenerational household. That complexity matters. And it’s been missing from the marketing conversation for too long.”
“We have to go beyond the couple on the cruise.It’s a nice picture, but it’s not most people’s story. Let’s show ageing in all its reality — its pride and its grief, its humour and its tenderness, its independence and its need for care,” Debbie Marshall.
That richness — the reality of how people live, age, and identify — is something the Voice community, supported by the National Innovation Centre for Ageing (NICA), has been exploring for over 15 years. Voice was created with a simple belief: that people with lived experience should have a voice in shaping the future, whether that’s in product design, policy, or storytelling. And in marketing, it starts with a shift from assumptions to conversation.
This year, the Silver Marketing Association Summit is making space for that shift. The panel “Voice: Beyond the Stereotypes,” developed in partnership with NICA + Voice, brings together older people whose lived experiences intersect across race, gender identity, disability, and sexuality. They are not just speaking about age — they’re speaking about identity, injustice, pride, resilience, and the power of being seen. Debbie sees it as a turning point.
“Last year, our ‘Marketing the Tough Stuff’ panel opened up powerful conversations around incontinence, bereavement, end-of-life care — all the things we usually avoid. This year we’re going deeper. We’re asking marketers to think more broadly. More compassionately. And yes, more intelligently. We want them to leave saying, ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’ That’s when something shifts.” And a shift is needed — urgently. The UK’s older population is changing, fast.
More than a million people over 60 are from Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic backgrounds —a figure that’s grown by 80% in just a decade. Nearly half of people aged 85 and over live with a disability. And among people aged 45 to 64, nearly 300,000 identify as LGB+ — a group that will make up a much larger share of the 65+ population very soon.
This Heinz ad was widely criticised for relying on harmful stereotypes, particularly the trope of the absent Black father.
Yet still, marketing clings to one-size-fits-all messaging for “the over 65s.” As if one campaign could possibly speak to such a wide, rich range of lives. The old silver-fox stereotype or the smiling retirees walking hand-in-hand on a beach might feel aspirational — but it rarely feels real.
It’s a bit like that famous comparison of King Charles and Ozzie Osbourne — same age, entirely different lives. Age alone tells us very little. And yet so much marketing treats it as the only lens that matters. “We have to go beyond the couple on the cruise,” Debbie says. “It’s a nice picture, but it’s not most people’s story. Let’s show ageing in all its reality — its pride and its grief, its humour and its tenderness, its independence and its need for care.”
Age alone tells us very little.
That kind of storytelling can’t come from spreadsheets. It comes from listening. That’s why Voice exists — to gather and share real stories from real people. Not as a diversity checkbox, but as the foundation for better ideas, stronger strategy, and more honest campaigns.
Controversial advertising campaign for Jaguar.
When marketers ignore that complexity, they don’t just risk irrelevance—they risk real-world consequences. Take Jaguar’s 2024 rebrand, for example. In trying to pivot away from their loyal, older customer base to target a younger, more ‘cutting-edge’ audience, they removed their iconic cat, featured no cars in their ads, and launched a minimalist “Copy Nothing” campaign. The result? European sales dropped by 97.5% in a single year, and the company is now scrambling to rebuild its brand and customer trust. It’s a stark reminder: age is not a fixed identity, and demographic assumptions are not strategy. And the cost of not adapting? It’s not just cultural — it’s commercial.
Those million-plus older adults from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK have a combined spending power of over £15 billion annually.
Those million-plus older adults from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK have a combined spending power of over £15 billion annually. The 300,000 LGB+ people aged 45–64 today will become more than 600,000 older adults in the coming decades. Many have higher disposable income, long-standing brand loyalty, and a sharp radar for authenticity. But only when they feel seen.
Relate's campaign for their counselling services. Photography by Rankin.
Yet most marketing still defaults to narrow templates. A financial services campaign may feature only married, white couples in retirement, missing the 40% of older women who are single, or the growing number of people caring for both parents and adult children, or ageing in households where financial decision-making is multigenerational and multicultural. And when you ignore that reality, you’re not just leaving people out — you’re leaving money on the table.
Shift20 challenges disability stereotypes—but older people are missing.
Marketing must evolve, not just in the stories it tells, but in the way it thinks. Tools like generative AI and resources like the Centre for Ageing Better’s image library can help — but only if we start with the right questions. “If we ask lazy questions, we’ll get lazy answers,” says Debbie. “But if we start by asking, ‘Who’s missing?’—that’s when we start to see what’s really possible.”
Because in the end, this isn’t just about who’s visible in our campaigns. It’s about who feels recognised. It’s about belonging. When marketing begins with lived experience, it does more than sell. It speaks truth. It builds trust. And it helps reshape how society understands ageing—not as decline, but as a space of diversity, dignity, depth and ongoing identity.
E45 ad celebrates trans+ skin journeys — but lacks older representation.
At Voice and This Curious Life, we’ve seen the difference that comes when people are truly listened to. When they help create the message instead of being reduced by it. When storytelling becomes a way to include — not just to impress. Because ageing isn’t a segment. It’s all of us. And it’s time marketing caught up with that simple, human truth.
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